Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, the newly appointed chief of the British defense staff, believes Russia could target this vital global network of internet cables responsible for carrying 97 percent of international communications. This could potentially ‘black out’ the west.
According to the Daily Mail, he said there had been ‘a phenomenal increase’ in Russian submarine activity over the past 20 years, adding: ‘Russia has grown the capability to put at threat those undersea cables and potentially exploit them.’
Asked whether destroying cables could be considered an act of war, Britain’s most senior military officer said: ‘Potentially, yes.’
In our modern digital age, these physical cables, lying thousands of feet beneath the ocean and sheathed in galvanized steel and plastic, are central to society. They are far more important than satellite communications, which account for just 3 percent of global traffic. Satellite transmission has been in decline since the early 1990s as fiber-optic cables grew in use.
Globally there are 436 of these cables, consisting of more than 800,000 miles of fiber optics. The biggest is the Asia American Gateway which is 12,430 miles long.
Every day the global cable network carries $10 trillion worth of financial transfers.
If these cables were severed, notes the Daily Mail, it would disrupt everything from agriculture and healthcare to military logistics and financial transactions, not to mention basics such as preventing access to the internet on our phones and laptops — this could instantly plunge the world into a new depression.
While these critical undersea cables are engineered to the ‘five nines’ standard — meaning they are reliable 99.999 percent of the time, a level generally reserved for nuclear weapons and space shuttles, they are still vulnerable to deliberate attack.
The Daily Mail reports:
…armed with hydraulic cutters attached to their hulls, Russian submersibles would make short work of the hosepipe-thin cables. Alternatively, divers or remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) fitted with cutters could do the job.
One ship identified as a serious threat is the Yantar. Officially described by the Russian navy as a ‘research’ ship, it carries two mini submarines designed for engineering missions which can examine areas up to 3.75 miles underwater.
Just four months after it took to the sea for the first time in 2015, Yantar triggered concern in intelligence circles when it was detected just off the U.S. coast on its way to Cuba where undersea cables make landfall near Guantanamo Bay.
In shallower waters, a vessel could deliberately drag an anchor along the seabed to rip the cables apart. Such an attack could be covered up by passing it off as an innocent fishing-boat accident.
…Out at sea, the cables are even more vulnerable, as they are often hundreds or thousands of miles from the nearest naval bases capable of identifying, monitoring and intercepting hostile ships.
There are also fears that Yantar’s submersibles could carry technology capable of tapping the cables.
‘Short of nuclear or biological warfare, it is difficult to think of a threat that could be more justifiably described as existential than that posed by the catastrophic failure of undersea cable networks as a result of hostile action,’ states a report from the Policy Exchange think-tank written in 2017.
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AmericanActionNews.com
Well, I would call that an Act of War which would require an Immediate Military response. That is, if we had a real President.
And a real military, not a woke military !
MAGA
“IF”, is A big word in this case,…. we have NOT had a real President for 361 days now,….we have commissar bidenski of the communist socialist movement !
Neither Putin, nor China are worried about the United States Armed Forces, because God has given us over for destruction. This government has become one of the most corrupt, if not the most corrupt of all governments.
All governments of this world are made up and controlled by sinful mankind; thus, all governments are doomed to fail, and this government has been traveling down the broad road of her own destruction for many decades now.
Yes, we have done much good throughout all the Earth, but the good one has done, does not erase the bad we have done, and I will admit we are the greatest of all nations, but being the greatest of all nations certainly does not make the United States great by no means.
This government if filled with the greediest of all individuals who greatest goal should be the betterment of this nation and her citizens, but no, their main goals is for self-preservation, reelection, control/power, and money above all.
The United States is going down, like nothing never seen before, there is coming a fire that will fall from the East to the West, and the U.S. will never ever rise to power again.
God will save those that have accept Yeshua, the Christ as their LORD and savior, but He will not save this nation.
Cut a cable? …Thats it??
Muslim states will easily do this to get them to fight WWIII!
Better boost our submarine force day 1
Day one of a Republican administration. Ain’t gonna happen under this or any dem admin. Demorats are too busy pushing trillions in social spending, forgiving trillions in student debt and pushing the green new deal. No room for defense spending in their warped minds.
if putin oes destroy our cables we should drop a nuke on Moscow.
There has already been a biological attack causing millions of deaths and NOTHING done! With the vulnerability of all the sensitive infrastructure on land, in the sea and in the air, unless enough people can come to their senses and elect some competent representatives we are doomed.
When will the “good” people of Earth stand up and say “ENOUGH!”? The PEOPLES of Earth do NOT need any more KILLING MACHINES or BOMBS or VIRUSES designed to KILL other people. NO, what we need is good water to drink and good food to eat.
WHAT ALL PEOPLES of EARTH NEED IS GOOD LEADERS AROUND THE PLANET. LEADERS WHO WILL BRING PEOPLE TOGETHER. UNTIL THEN WE ARE ALL DESTINED TO PARTICIPATE IN WW3.
Let’s Go Brandon for starters! Get out biden, quit and get out now!
well….that would shut the dems up
I believe more than we should fear what Putin might do is that we should fear the current President that is supposed to protect us from foreign and domestic enemies.